20 Southern-Style Restaurants in Cincinnati For Home-Cooked Goodness

By CityBeat Staff on Fri, Sep 27, 2019 at 3:08 pm

Nothing warms the heart quite like Southern cooking. From fried chicken and mac and cheese to biscuits smothered in gravy, the South just knows how to fill up that belly up with love. Cincinnati is home to a plethora of Southern-style eateries, ranging from traditional Southern spots to Louisiana-style to straight-up soul food. Here are a few of our favorites:

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Libby’s Southern Comfort

35 W. Eighth St., Covington
Brad Wainscott, whose father owns longstanding Kentucky mainstays The Greyhound Tavern and Tousey House Tavern, opened this Covington eatery that pays tribute to Southern classics like fried chicken and half-shell oysters served alongside a variety of bourbon drinks and other local favorites.
Photo: Hailey Bollinger

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Boomtown Biscuits and Whiskey

1201 Broadway St., Pendleton
At Boomtown, the true delight comes plated. The signature biscuit isn’t a run-of-the-mill thousand-layer flaked baked good. It’s a buttery, soft disc with a close crumb and a browned, lightly bubbled top that no breakfast chain can compete with. Choose from sandwiches, plates, bowls, sides and dessert.
Photo: Hailey Bollinger

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Rich’s Proper Food + Drink

701 Madison Ave., Covington
Rich’s Proper Food & Drink operates out of the more than 100-year-old building formerly occupied by Rich’s Gruen Watches, a high-end jewelry store. Owner/operator of the eatery, Bill Whitlow, spent considerable time and effort restoring the building, helping to expose its history. The bar’s menu includes wine, beer and cocktails (the Proper Mule is jumbo-sized and hypothetically shareable), with a special emphasis on bourbon. The kitchen provides Southern fare with Creole and Kentucky influences, including raw oysters.
Photo: Hailey Bollinger

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Commonwealth Bistro

621 Main St., Covington, Ky.
Commonwealth Bistro is seriously good. For dinner, entrées toe the line between contemporary and comfort food, with dishes like Kentucky-fried rabbit with creamed collard greens, lamb ragu and roasted heirloom carrots — they even serve Ale-8-One soda, with or without booze.
Photo via Facebook.com/CommonwealthBistro

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LouVino

1142 Main St., Over-the-Rhine
This Louisville-based wine bar offers Southern-inspired small plates, as well as bourbon, cocktails, beer and 17 preselected wine flights. Brunchers: Louvino serves cheap mimosas on Saturdays and Sundays, plus foodie items like pancake tacos, stuffed French toast and chicken biscuit sliders. A portion of the menu changes once per quarter, so guests can expect something new.
Photo: Hailey Bollinger

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Fiery Hen

26 W. Court St., Downtown
From the team behind Court Street Lobster Bar comes this Southern-style hot chicken eatery featuring Nashville hot chicken sandwiches, catfish, burgers, fried green tomatoes, brisket and more, including a moonshine menu and taps with local beer. Guests can choose a level of heat, with sauces ranging from mild to the cleverly coined “Bless Your Heart” sauce.
Photo: Izzy Viox

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Tousey House Tavern

5963 North Jefferson St., Burlington, Ky.
Tousey House has all the Southern comforts you crave, offering a large menu featuring brunch, lunch and dinner items. A few popular dishes include the fried green tomatoes, chicken and waffles and Southern eggs benedict. They also offer bourbon flights. The restaurant is located inside of a historic building that dates back to 1822.
Photo via Facebook/touseyhouse

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Purple Poulet

603 Sixth Ave., Dayton, Ky.
Dayton, Kentucky’s Purple Poulet brands itself as a Southern bourbon bistro, emphasis on the bourbon — and the hospitality and service. They boast an extensive bourbon collection, one of the largest in the area, and the spirit is woven into many of their dishes, like the KY Coq au Vin. The bourbon-brined chicken breast is juicy and stark white, and the red-wine bacon gravy is full of flavor. The "Swanky" Shrimp & Grits come with bourbon-cream pan gravy, andouille, bacon and red-eye ganache.
Photo via purplepoulet.com

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20 Brix

101 Main St., Milford
Cutting-edge cuisine with more than 200 wines from around the world. The menu uses seasonally and locally sourced ingredients to craft a New American menu with French and Southern accents, like in the shrimp and grits, or steak frites.
Photo via Facebook/20brix

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Coppin’s

638 Madison Ave., Covington
There’s a strong local identity to the location and the menu, with nods to history and the new South, the bourbon and the banter that starts at the Roebling Bridge. The menu is full of upscale but still Southern-inspired dishes like chicken and waffles and Maddy's cornbread, with white cheddar, jalapeno and honey butter.
Photo: Mitchell Parton

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The Eagle

1342 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine
The Eagle is nested inside a retired post office and has a relatively small menu, comprised of fried chicken, sandwiches, snacks and several side dishes. Booze-wise, they serve 100 kinds of beer and have about 15 different brews on tap. The fried chicken is free-range, all natural and sourced from Ohio farms. Opt for a whole, half chicken (white and dark meat) or a quarter of a chicken (select white or dark). The spicy honey served with chicken is a must — try it on everything.
Photo via Facebook/TheEagleOTR

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B&A Street Kitchen

1500 Race St., Over-the-Rhine
B&A Street Kitchen’s menu is a fusion of Southern comfort food and Mexican-influenced dishes, everything from tacos and biscuits and gravy with pork chorizo to tortas and a three-cheese quesadilla.
Photo via Facebook.com/bastreetkitchen

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Joella’s Hot Chicken

180 E. Freedom Way, Downtown; 2440 High St., Crescent Springs
Taste the flavors of the South at Joella’s Hot Chicken, offering Nashville-style hot chicken with the perfect amount of spice and sauce of your choosing. They also offer handmade sides, desserts and sweet tea.
Photo via Facebook/JoellasHotChicken

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BrewRiver Creole Kitchen

4632 Eastern Ave., East End
Chef Michael Shields, who earned his chops under Emeril Lagassé, opened BrewRiver Creole Kitchen with craft beer and thoughtfully paired New Orleans-leaning cuisine in mind. Try the Decatur Street muffaletta, gumbo or shrimp po’ boy with a rotating list of locally brewed drafts, bottles and cans — some of which are even featured in the recipes themselves. An expanded and updated location offers more of a focus on NOLA eats.
Photo: Hailey Bollinger

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Dee Felice Café

529 Main St., Covington, Ky.
If you’re looking for more of an experience than just dinner, swing into Dee Felice Café. Along with spicy New Orleans-style dishes, you’ll enjoy great live Jazz performed on a raised stage behind the bar. The star dish here is the crawfish étouffée, a generous pile of crawfish tails with vegetables and spicy sauce over rice.
Photo via Facebook/DeeFeliceCafe

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Greyhound Tavern

2500 Dixie Highway, Fort Mitchell, Ky.
Greyhound Tavern has been a Fort Mitchell institution since the 1930s. You won’t want to miss the divine fried chicken, the ginormous onion rings, the Hot Brown or the bread pudding. It’s family-style fried chicken night on Mondays and Tuesdays, with generous portions of bird — rolled in secret-recipe herbed flour and fried — mashed potatoes, green beans, coleslaw and biscuits.
Photo via Facebook.com/greyhoundtavern

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Knotty Pine on the Bayou

6302 Licking Pike, Cold Spring, Ky.
This Northern Kentucky eatery features Louisiana cooking, featuring alligator, lobster bisque, oysters, fried catfish and frog legs with a mess of sides. Be sure to ask about the nightly special.
Photo via Facebook/knottypineonthebayou/

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Just Cooking

1142 California St., Bond Hill
Just recently relocated from the West End, this family-owned restaurant provides catering and pick-up for some of the best Southern-style food in the area. While the new location is not yet open (the owner is hoping to be up and running on Jan. 1) customers are waiting in anticipation for some mouth-watering food. They also plan to get a food truck.
Photo: Nick Swartsell

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